POLICE Officers in Scotland have moved a step closer to taking industrial action after being treated with “utter contempt” over pay talks.
It has now been 19 days since the last communication between the Police Negotiating Board - made up of the Scottish Police Authority, Police Scotland and the Scottish government - and staff representatives.
Calum Steele, the veteran general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation said he had never encountered a situation like this in his career.
Earlier this month, officers in Scotland were offered a pay increase, which would work out at around 1.4 per cent for most officers, and around 2% for the newest constable.
The SPF, which represents all officers from probationers to chief inspectors, described the offer as “derisory” and asked for 3.4%.
They have heard nothing since.
Taking to Twitter, he said: "Police officers are good at finding evidence but even Clouseau himself wouldn’t struggle to see what’s right before his eyes - this @scotGov is displaying an utter contempt for police officers in our ongoing pay dispute."
Police officers are good at finding evidence but even Clouseau himself wouldn’t struggle to see what’s right before his eyes - this @scotGov is displaying an utter contempt for police officers in our ongoing pay dispute.
— Calum Steele (@CalumA_Steele) June 15, 2022
Mr Steele later told The Herald: “I have never known anything like this in the 15 years that I've been involved with the police negotiating board.
“In all of the years since the Police Service of Scotland was created where I have been the principal negotiator on behalf of police officers in Scotland I have never encountered a situation like this before.”
On Wednesday afternoon the Scottish Government offered NHS staff a 5% wage hike, similar to the pay increase offered to staff at publicly owned ScotRail last week.
Mr Steele said police officers had been sidelined during “one of the most frenetic rounds of public sector pay negotiations taking place across the country”.
He said it demonstrated "a fairly high level of contempt amongst the government for how we should be treated when it comes to our pay.”
Mr Steele said officers were “incandescent.”
He said there was clearly a “willingness in certain parts of government to actively promote that dialogue with unions, whilst clearly not giving a fig for the same situation for police officers.”
He said officers were “expressing levels of anger that I have never known in my 30 years of service.”
Police officers have legal limits on what industrial action they are allowed to take. They are not allowed to strike.
However, Mr Steele said that at the next meeting of the federation’s executive on Tuesday, a “series of proposals” outlining the “legal actions that are available to police officers to take” would be set out.
He said: “Those options are more plentiful and more varied than many people would believe them to be, even though they do stop short of the ability to withdraw our labour.
"More importantly, they are capable of being escalated. They are capable of being sustained. And without a shadow of a doubt they will be disruptive.”
Scottish Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Jamie Greene MSP said: “The Scottish Police Federation’s anger towards the SNP Government is both palpable and entirely understandable.
“Police officers are entitled to feel short-changed by ministers when they see far more generous pay offers being made to other public sector workers.
“The Scottish Government know only too well that police officers are forbidden from striking, so the very least they can do is engage with the SPF.
“Inaction on the part of SNP ministers will ultimately lead to the public being put in danger if hardworking police officers resort to some form of industrial action out of nothing but desperation for ministers to listen and act.
“We know the SNP are indifferent to hard-working and over-stretched police officers.
"They admitted themselves that ‘justice is no longer a priority’, they have already cut the police capital budget and in the recent spending review chose to freeze the overall police budget for the remainder of the parliament."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Police Officer pay is negotiated through the Police Negotiating Board, as it has been for many years. The PNB process is ongoing in relation to pay for 2022/23, and we await the outcome of those discussions.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We remain committed, through the Police Negotiating Board, to seeking a settlement.”
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